That’s not a misprint – Sabine Liebner
performs Metapiece twice. When performed
solo, this 1961 composition by Kagel is
Metapiece; when played simultaneously or
in
alternation with pieces by Kagel, as here, or
other living composers, it’s Mimetics.
Kagel
(1931-2008) was modernist and postmodernist
master, his often anarchistic works aiming to
subvert or deconstruct the structures of
classical music. That’s true here, with
Metapiece
appearing first in juxtaposition with the early
Five Pieces, written in Argentina in 1954. The
increasingly lamentoso An Tasten is
‘disturbed’,
as the sleeve-notes put it, by the undertow of
the simultaneously realised Mimetics.
MM51: A Piece of Film Music for Piano is not
accompanied
by Mimetics, but by an increasingly
out-of-kilter
metronome, and theatrical laughter by the
pianist. Unlike most classical recordings, this
is
a real album, with a genuine concept, and an
excellent introduction to Kagel’s work.